Alright so I'm a huge Zelda fan but admit I've never played Spirit Tracks or Phantom Hourglass. My question to you guys is are these games worth playing or not? And if so, why? I was thinking about picking them up but just not sure if they're worth the money.

I've got about 10 hours put into Spirit Tracks and I've enjoyed it so far. I stopped playing it a few months ago because I got distracted with Skyward Sword and some other games though.

Both are great games. Phantom Hourglass has you repeating the same dungeon several times, but you go farther each time. So there is a fair amount of backtracking. I don't remember much about Spirit Tracks other then the fact that it was very good as I did beat the game and enjoyed the story as well. I say get them.

Phantom isn't worth it at all. Not sure about the other but I heard it is much the same.

The problem with the one I have played is that the controls don't work too precisely and it's very easy to make link do a roll instead of what you want being stuck using the stylus. And the larger issue is an ungodly level of very annoying backtracking laid on top of backtracking. After each moderate sized event, item find, or outing to a location you're made to return by boat to the starter island to deal with this Temple of the Sea King which is a timed dungeon that adds +1 floors each time. Eventually so far in there is a stop point where you can pick up from at least, but still you until that point have to re-do the same floors, same puzzles, same timing over and over and over on top of always returning even if it's like 15min away on the map back to do that annoying dungeon. I couldn't tolerate it after playing about a 1/3 or so of the game and sold it.

Spirit Tracks supposedly made it a little less easy to not accidentally roll, but it still has some form of the over and over backtracking just on a train instead of a boat so I just avoided it.

Personally I enjoyed Spirit Tracks more than PH but both are worth playing. If you don't have a lot of time for gaming then skip PH and just get ST.

Of course they are worth playing! If not just for the fact you can then say "I didn't like _______ " and still have given it a chance.

I love the Zelda franchise, but I just can't get too in to the handhelds. Haven't played Spirit Tracks as I only have a sealed copy, but I have an open copy of PH that I've tried to give a shot. Don't care for it at all (actually I'm stuck too) seems to be a lot of backtracking and as Tanooki said up there the controls suck,I can never get Link to roll. Doesn't seem to be much of a challenge either in the ways of combat, only some of the puzzles have taken me more than a few seconds to figure out.

I didn't think either game met the standard of greatness I would have wanted from a top-down Zelda game, but Phantom Hourglass was all right. The sailing portions reminded me a lot of Wind Waker, and I thought the new control scheme was good.

I hated Spirit Tracks with a fiery passion, and I'll tell you why: The overworld is nothing but train ride after train ride, switching tracks to avoid the occasional obstacle (other trains). I felt like more than 50% of the game was just me sitting there watching countryside go by. I forced myself through most of the game -- right up to the very last stretch, in fact. But after seeing what I had to go through to reach the final boss (I won't spoil it here), I shut the game off right there, said "screw it," and packed the cart back into the box. Forever, much like the eternal slumber of the Master Sword in LttP.

Anyway, if you don't care about the ability to wander the overworld freely then the game might be OK for you. But that was 50% of Zelda gone as far as I was concerned.

I enjoyed both and would recommend both. I would have preferred not to use touch controls but it worked great for what it was. They're not the best Zelda games, but still worth playing through if you're a zelda fan.

PH was the very first 2D Zelda that I did not enjoy. I didn't take issue with the stylus controls... although, I always had a problem with Link rolling when I didn't want him to ... and not rolling when I actually did want him to.

The repetitive central dungeon, the fact that it's timed, and all the boring sailing were huge turnoffs for me. I finished the game only because I don't give up on games (ie - I always play one game at a time until I'm done with the main quest and any side stuff I care to do)... but remains the one and only 2D Zelda that I will never play again. Other than that, everything else to do with PH was fine but my few grievances are significant enough for me to say that I do not like PH.

Haven't played ST yet, but would like to obtain an inexpensive copy to do so.

I've made it a point to state 2D Zelda because I do not enjoy the 3D Zeldas (OoT, etc.)... yes blasphemous I know.

I enjoyed it. It has some cool boss battles, some challenging puzzles, and a lot of charm. Also, the overworld theme is one of my favorite pieces of Zelda music. I expect the game isn't for everyone though. There is some backtracking and the controls are different than the usual, but I didn't mind so much. It might not live up to some of the console titles, but it's a fine game in its own right.

Depends on if you actually enjoyed Phantom Hourglass, I guess.

For me, Phantom Hourglass was an experience of: well, somebody gave it to me for my birthday, so I better pay them the respect of playing it.

I never finished it because the grind/re-grind of the main temple is so freaking boring and the controls are terrible, as Tanooki pointed out.

Legend of Zelda is not meant for touch controls.

Personally I thought Phantom Hourglass was so bad that I never even touched Spirit Tracks.

I enjoyed Spirit Tracks more than Phantom Hourglass. Grinding on that dungeon in PH really lost my intrest in it. Never really had problems with the controls as other people mentioned, as far as I can remember. It's obviously not as good as other overhead Zeldas (LTTP), but I found Spirit Tracks to be worth my time and I definietly enjoyed playing through it. If your interested you should take a shot at it.

I enjoyed Phantom Hourglass quite a bit and hated Spirit Tracks quite a bit, so from all the answers in this thread, there's no way of knowing. You just need to play it yourself.

I didn't like spirit tracks because the tracks felt too linear. I did get to the final dungeon but stopped playing since I didn't feel like tracking all theway back. Not only that, spirit tracks has some of the easiest puzzles. Phantom hourglass was refreshing and the backtrack dungeon + characters were fun and enjoyful for me. I've beaten PH about twice now. It's a good length and the mystery of the new maps and islands makes it really fun. They're both good but one just feels less of an adventure since you're Stuck following tracks all day.